Hitch Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1940s

"Rope" was released in 1948. It is based on a 1929 play. The play is said to have been inspired by the 1924 real murder committed by Leopold and Loeb. The murderers in the movie place the victim's body in a chest which they then use as a buffet table for a dinner party that is attended by the victim's father and fiancée. The murderer's goal is to commit the perfect crime.

"Rope" was Hitch's first color film.

About half-way through the movie a profile of Hitch can be seen on a red sign.

Answer: 1950s

"The Wrong Man" (1956) was Hitch's only film based on a real story. He appears on screen in shadows to tell the audience that the film's "every word is true".

The movie tells the story of a man arrested for a series of crimes he didn't commit. The film stars mild-mannered Henry Fonda and Vera Miles.

Answer: 1950s

"To Catch a Thief" is a 1955 film starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. It seems that Grant's character was an infamous, though then retired, cat-burglar. The crimes have mirrored Grant's style, therefore making him the prime suspect. He enlists Grace Kelly's help to clear his name. A large part of the movie is filmed in Monaco.

The picnic scene with Grant and Kelly was reportedly filmed near the spot where Kelly had her fatal crash in 1982.

Hitchcock appears as a passenger on a bus.

Answer: 1960s

"The Birds" (1963) was the first and only film that Hitch directed where non-humans were the antagonists. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor. Much of the film was shot on location at Bodega Bay, CA. The suspense comes from why and when the birds are attacking. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening.

Hitch's cameo appearance occurs when he is seen leaving a pet shop walking two Sealyham Terriers.

Answer: 1950s

"North by Northwest" was released in 1959 and stars Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. Grant plays an advertising executive who is mistaken for a spy. The mistaken identity leads to a cross-country chase during which Grant meets Saint. While appearing to help Grant, he finds out that Saint is also involved in this spy game.

For his cameo appearance, Hitch is seen getting on a bus.

Answer: 1950s

"Rear Window", a 1954 release starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, is seen entirely from the prospective of Stewart's wheelchair bound character. A photojournalist turned voyeur, Stewart spends his time peering in his neighbor's windows with his telescopic lens.

Stewart said that the whole cast and crew was mesmerized by Grace Kelly's beauty.

For his cameo in this film Hitch is seen in a neighboring apartment winding a clock.

Answer: 1950s

"Vertigo" is a 1958 film that stars Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. Stewart plays a retired police detective who suffers from acrophobia and vertigo. A friend of Stewart's, fearful that his wife may be possessed, hires him to follow her. Stewart ends up falling in love with his friend's wife.

Hitch can be seen as a man dressed in a gray suit walking in front of a building.

Answer: 1960s

"Psycho" was released in 1960 and stars Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The cast and crew had to swear an oath not to divulge one word of the story. Hitch also kept the ending secret from the cast. He bought the rights to the novel for $9,000, then attempted to buy as many copies as he could to try to keep the ending a secret from the public.

It is the music that contributed so much to the shower scene and other scenes. Initially, Hitch didn't want any music for the shower scene until he was persuaded otherwise by his wife.

A moviegoer wrote Hitch that his daughter was afraid to take a shower after seeing the movie. Hitch's reply was "Send her to the dry cleaners".

Early in the film Hitch can be seen wearing a cowboy hat.

Answer: 1970s

"Frenzy" is a 1972 British film starring Jon Finch, Barry Foster and Barbara Leigh-Hunt. In this film Hitch returned to his theme of an innocent man attempting to prove his innocence. Only this movie involves a serial killer who rapes and strangles women with a necktie. It is Hitch's only film to receive an R rating. "Frenzy" was the first film Hitch made in Britain since the 1950s.

Hitch's daughter wouldn't allow her children to see the film until they were much older. Hitch originally wanted Michael Caine to star but Caine said it would ruin his image to play a sadistic serial-killer. Hitch never spoke to him again.

Hitch can be seen as member of a crowd listening to a speech.

Answer: 1940s

"Lifeboat" was released in early 1944 and was based on a story by John Steinbeck. Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix star as two of the survivors of a battle between an American merchant ship and a German U-boat. The survivors reveal their true nature as each ordeal is faced.

Hitch's recent diet (he lost over 100 pounds) prompted his cameo appearance in a newspaper ad fora diet supplement, but not the one advertised.

Answer: 1950s

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" dates from 1956 and stars Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. In the movie Stewart's character becomes innocently involved in an assassination plot. Doris Day's hit record from this movie is "Que Sera Sera". It won an Academy Award and became the most popular song of Day's career.

Doris Day's fight against animal abuse began when she saw the way the animals in the film were treated. Day had a fear of flying and almost turned down her role in this movie because it required air travel.

For his cameo Hitch is seen watching acrobats in a Moroccan market.

Answer: 1960s

"Marnie" is a 1964 psychological thriller starring Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. The story is about a man who hires as his secretary a woman he believes to be the same woman who once worked for a friend of his until she stole $10,000 and then disappeared. Instead of turning her in to the police he decides to marry her in an attempt to help her with her psychological problems.

Hitch's cameo shows him coming out of a hotel room.

Answer: 1960s

"Topaz" is an American espionage thriller released in 1969. It did not star Hitch's usual cadre of Hollywood stars. Instead, it stared international actor Frederick Stafford (in his first American film) and Karin Dor. In the movie a Soviet intelligence officer defects. During his debriefing he tells the CIA that Soviet missiles are going to be based in Cuba.

This movie was Hitch's longest and was also his biggest financial failure.

Hitch makes his cameo in a scene at the airport getting out of a wheelchair.

Answer: 1960s

"Torn Curtain" was released in 1966 and stars Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. The movie follows the exploits of an American scientist who defects to the Soviet Union. His mission is to steal Soviet scientific data and then re-defect back to the West. Hitch got the inspiration for the film from the real-life defections of Guy Burgess and Donald MacLean in1951.

Hitch reportedly said that this movie was his biggest disappointment, although it was successful at the box office.

Hitch's cameo is as a man holding a baby in the hotel's lobby.

Answer: 1970s

"Family Plot" was released in 1976 and was Hitch's final film as a director. The movie stars Bruce Dern and Karen Black. This film, sometimes classified as a dark comedy, is often criticized because it was not as suspenseful as most of Hitch's prior films.

Hitch appears in silhouette for his cameo in "Family Plot".